Todd bought this tractor about 10 years ago. Since the purchase of the Case 1070, Todd, Brenden and Mark slowly restored it. Updates and additions include, Turbo; 38” step-up wheels and a full set of front and rear weights. During the past 10 years, the 1070 was used to no-till drill soybeans but now spends time doing light farm work on occasion.

Owned by Mike and Cindy Zumbahlen, Effingham, Ill. Restored by Mike and his family.

Mike and Cindy purchased this tractor back in 2005 from their neighbors, Harold and Norma Atlhoff. Mike and the family got together and restored this Farmall in the March of 2010. As a birthday present to Mike, Cindy submitted this photo in hope of making it on the cover in time for Mike’s birthday in May. Happy Birthday Mike!

The tractor was originally purchased by Alois A Kahlig of Ballinger, Texas for $558 on December 19, 1927. He and his sons W.J. Clements and Harold used the tractor on their farm in Olfen, Texas until 1930 when it was replaced by a Farmall Regular. It remained in a shed on the farm until Mr. Kahligs’ death in 1965 when his son-in-law, Elo G. Wilde, moved the tractor to his farm near Wall, Texas. His sons, Richard and Harvey Wilde, inherited the tractor.

After five generations, the tractor is currently housed on Harvey’s farm near San Angelo, Texas.

One is a show horse, the other is a workhorse with a loader. The D-17 in front, beautifully restored is a 6-cylinder diesel rated 46 hp drawbar, 51 hp belt. The D-17 was sandwiched between the D-15 and D-19. Allis-Chalmers also built a D-21. Features on the 1960 D-17 include both a foot and hand clutch for any-speed baling. New it sold for about $5,500. The ’68 D-17 a 4-cylinder has 48.64 drawbar hp, 52,7 belt hp. It came from the field for the photo. This tractor was purchased from Reitzel Brothers, an Ohio tractor and machinery dealer with customers all across the U.S., Canada, Ireland and England.

Owners: Bill Bauer and sons Steve and RodneyMontpelier, Ohio

These are an Allis-Chalmers family and they do indeed show and work their tractors. Bill, the dad, uses his 1960 D-17 to haul people in wagons from the parking lots to the fairgrounds duringtheir Williams County Fair in extreme northwest Ohio each September.

The world-famous Classic Farm Tractor Calendar from Classic Tractor Fever is in its 21st year of publication with the 2010 calendar available now. They have calendars, videos, books, and much, much, more. Click here to visit their online shop.

Elmer Green bought this 1960 Oliver with a cultivator in 1979 for $50. The machine was inline to be cut up for scrap iron. The motor was stuck but it only took him one day to get it running. In 2003 Green restored the tractor. He restored the cultivator in 2004 and today he uses it to cultivate their sweet corn crop!

You probably haven’t seen a tricycle 8N like this in the Midwest, because they were designed for cotton and narrow-row vegetable growers by a firm in California. The history is a little foggy, but it’s believed several hundred of these tricycle kits were made for 8N and 9N tractors, and collector have them now. Tricycle’s main fabrications are the large casting from oil pan forward, the yoke to hold the single front wheel and the steering lever attached to the yoke. Also, note the taller rear tires—size 10 x 38” in the 1940s and ‘50s, replacing the smaller 28” rear tires on conventional Fords. Ford did produce its own tricycle modles in the mid-‘50s when it introduced the 7000 and 800 series.

Owner: Danny Norman
Allenhurst, Georgia

The Ford is pictures on the historic Tea Grove Plantation, in Georgia, with mossy-covered oak trees as a background. This was a late version of the 8N Frod, which had five more horsepower than earlier ones.

The world-famous Classic Farm Tractor Calendar from Classic Tractor Fever is in its 21st year of publication with the 2010 calendar available now. They have calendars, videos, books, and much, much, more. Click here to visit their online shop.

The early row-crop tractors were built with a drop-box type of rear axle to provide the necessary clearance under the rear axle for cultivating row crops. The wheels were spaced for cultivating, which often resulted in side-draft problems when the tractor was used for plowing. This situation changed in early 1930 when the Oliver Hart-Parr Row Crop tractor was introduced. This tractor used 59.5-inch diameter rear wheels attached to a straight rear axle to provide ample clearance for cultivating row crops. The rear wheel spacing was adjustable along the axles, so the wheels could be set in a narrow position for plowing and a wide position for cultivating.

Most people don’t know the development of this tractor was started by a plow and implement company, the Oliver Chilled Plow Works of South Bend, Indiana. The first prototype was built in 1926 and test work started in Texas that year. The rear wheels on the first tractors were interconnected dual steel wheels, but company photos show these were revised to a single ring steel wheel by 1928. These prototypes were built with a 4-cylinder, L-head type Hercules engine and a 3-speed transmission. Mid-mounted implements, such as planters, cultivators, and mowers, were developed at the same time.

On April 2, 1929 (not April 1), the Oliver Farm Equipment Company was formed when the Oliver Chilled Plow Works merged with the Hart-Parr Company, a tractor manufacturer, and the Nichols & Shepard Company, a builder of harvesting equipment. A fourth company, the American Seeding Machine Company, was added on May 17, 1929. After the merger, the row-crop tractor project was transferred to the Hart-Parr division for one more year of development.

The Oliver Hart-Parr Row Crop tractor was introduced with a single front wheel, a 4-cylinder Waukesha-Oliver valve-in-head engine which burned kerosene, a 3-speed transmission, and the large-diameter rear wheels which were named Tip-Toe wheels. After its test at Nebraska, the tractor was identified as the 18-27, its drawbar and belt horsepower ratings. In mid-1931, the single front wheel was replaced with dual front wheels and individual turning brakes on the differential shaft were added. Individual turning brakes which mounted at the end of the rear axle housings were made available for the earlier version of the tractor.

Other early row-crop tractors with large diameter rear wheels adjustable along a straight axle were the Farmall F-12 introduced in 1933, followed by the John Deere A in 1934 and the John Deere B in 1935. Contrary to what a series of books about John Deere tractors state, the John Deere A was not the first tractor with adjustable rear wheel tread.

Larry Gay is the author of four farm tractor books published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, including A Guide to Hart-Parr, Oliver and White Tractors. This book may be obtained from ASABE at 800-695-2723 or asabe.org, click publications and then click history books.